Bos, Hendrik
Bos, Roelofje (Last)
Linde van der, Johanna
The Jewish Isaacson family live in Hengelo, in the Dutch province Overijssel. Sigfried Isaacson (b. 1893) and his wife, Clotilde (née Lievendag, b. 1904), had three children: Eddy, Rini, and Sonja. Sigfried was an engineer, who in 1921 had arrived in Hengelo, where he met Clotilde. They lived in a nice neighborhood, had a maid, and were a happy young family until 1940, when the German invasion of Holland took place. Even in Hengelo, a calm town, the Jews soon understood that their lives were in serious danger.
In February 1943 the Isaacsons went into hiding, with the help of their neighbor, who was a doctor. The parents, the son, and the two daughters were sheltered separately. Sigfried and Clotilde arrived in Kampen, at the home of Hendrik and Roelofje Bos (b. 1904 and 1905, respectively). The Bos couple were Christian people, who really cared about the fate of their Jewish fellow citizens and had already sheltered some of them. Hendrik was a cigar maker and a councilor for a Christian political party.
Johanna van der Linde was the Bos couple’s good friend. Every month, she traveled from her hometown, Hengelo, to the Bos family in Kampen, where she provided them with food coupons and money for the Isaacsons. Obviously, this was a dangerous trip each time. Johanna, who was born in 1891, was single and owned an underwear store in Hengelo. Because she was busy with the store, she had a maid who helped her with the household. This woman became Johanna’s close friend; they developed a strong, confidential relationship.
Sadly, though, Johanna’s confidence in this woman was misplaced. The maid’s boyfriend was a policeman who had been trained by the Germans in “Jew hunting.” After a while the maid knew a lot of details about Johanna’s providing food coupons and money to Jewish hiders in Kampen every month, and she told her boyfriend about it.
The boyfriend found this news very interesting, and when he learned that Johanna’s next trip to Kampen would take place on April 14, 1944, he followed her, accompanied by five other policemen. When Johanna arrived at the Bos family’s home, Hendrik Bos, the Isaacson couple, and Johanna van der Linde were all arrested. Roelofje Bos, who was not at home at the time, was not arrested.
This terrible betrayal resulted in the deaths of Hendrik Bos and Sigfried and Clotilde Isaacson. Of the four who had been arrested, only Johanna van der Linde survived the war. She was first imprisoned in Camp Vught, from where she was transported to Ravensbrück after four months. Next she was transferred to Dachau, and she survived the death march. Hendrik Bos was also imprisoned in Vught; he was then sent to Camp Oranienburg, in Germany, and from there to Buchenwald, where he perished on February 1, 1945. The Isaacsons were sent via Camp Westerbork to Auschwitz, where Sigfried was murdered and Clotilde died from typhus.
The maid's boyfriend was killed by the SD (Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence agency of the Nazi party). He had deserted the police and gone into hiding in September 1944, when many Dutchmen thought the war was over. The maid stood trial after the war for her betrayal and was sentenced to a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence and three years of compulsory treatment order.
Hendrik Bos had paid with his life for his attempt to save the Isaacson couple, whose three children survived the war in hiding. Roelofje Bos lost her beloved husband and was left alone. Johanna van der Linde almost died too because of the help she rendered. They were extraordinary people, who gave everything to save their Jewish fellow men.
On February 23, 2015, Yad Vashem recognized Hendrik and Roelofje (Last) Bos and Johanna van der Linde as Righteous Among the Nations.